Hawaii shortstop Nawai Kaupe was named the Big West Softball Field Player of the Week on Monday after leading the Rainbow Wahine to a sweep of Cal State Bakersfield.

Kaupe hit .750 in the three-game series at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium, going 6-for-8 with three doubles and a home run and driving in eight runs. Kaupe posted a 1.500 slugging percentage and .833 on-base percentage to help the Rainbow Wahine outscore the Roadrunners 25-5 in the series.

Kaupe, a Maui High alumna, earned the first Big West weekly honor of her career and became the first UH player to claim the award since Nicole Lopez on April 29, 2019.

Kaupe is hitting .337 and leads the Big West with nine home runs and ranks second in OPS at 1.092. UH (18-15, 12-6 BWC) enters the week alone in third place in the conference and travels to second-place Long Beach State (23-19, 13-5) for a three-game series starting Friday.

UH denied NCAA water polo bid

The University of Hawaii water polo team closed its season on Monday without an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Rainbow Wahine (16-6), ranked fourth in last week’s Collegiate Water Polo Association poll, saw their season end with an 11-8 loss to UC Irvine in the Big West tournament final on Saturday at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex. UC Irvine earned the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA bracket unveiled on Monday and will face fourth-seeded UCLA in the quarterfinals on May 6 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Stanford, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champion, is the top seed in the nine-team bracket. The MPSF claimed all three at-large berths, with selections for No. 2 seed USC, No. 3 California and No. 4 UCLA.